Hello everyone from Switzerland, at 2:35 am I almost start screaming when you mention Starbucks, sorry, there are many coffees etc. that make real coffee, not a broth with aromatic syrup (or recently with "healthy" olive oil) . It is also common in Switzerland for companies to be generous when you have personal/private problems. Small family businesses in particular are sometimes really active there to help an employee out of a personal crisis, something like this creates a relationship of trust that lasts for decades.

About making friends at work: Yes it's not the norm but definitely happens. You just don't expect it with everyone you meet at work. The vacation part is definitely true as well. I had 14 days left over from last year so I'm taking 44 days of vacation this year. 😎

Hey you 2, I recommend, when you come to us in Germany, you contact the families of "the black forest family" and "My merry messy life" family. Contact info you´ll find on their channels. These expats-families live and work here and can steer you to the interesting places. AND you can talk to them in American English 😅. I suggest you contact them a while before you travel, so you can plan your tour, and maybe secure train tickets in Germany. Be safe and sound. Elmar from Germany.

greetings from southwest germany and thank you for your video.

I'm from the Netherlands(Limburg region) and being close to the borders of 2 other countries definitely has its influence though even here we have plenty of vacation days and we get sent on study courses for certain certificates one needs to have at work every few years and getting on time is also VERY inportant here, though some people might take it less serious then others. Germany itsself is a great vacation destination no matter to what part u go.

There are so many different regions in Germany that it's really difficult to recomment something to you. Do you prefer the mountains or the sea? I personally would suggest the rhine region between Koblenz and Mainz with its many castles.

I would recommend visiting the South of Germany as it has many castles, a beautiful landscape and is home to the „typical“ german culture that is known abroad. I recommend visiting the lake of constance and from there you can also easily visit Switzerland and Austria, since the 3 countries share it.

I'm from Wuppertal in Germany and i would say you should visit Schwerin! It is a great city!

The coolest spots are ... everywhere, it depends what you like. - museums - nature - hills - mountains - forrests - hiking - festivals - clubbing - swimming - ...

In the north you can visit :Stralsund, Lüneburg, Flensburg and Kiel at Kieler - Woche(great Party time).. *and every German learning English at school and another language, so we fresh up at a,, US, GB vacation..

Greetings from Estonia. We also have 28 days of mandatory vacation for teachers in any level ( kindergarten, schools other educational workers) it even up to 56 days. If you get sick it's pretty comfy to get a sick leave. You just have to call to your doctor. The first day of sick leave is not paid. 2-5 day are paid by the company you work and then state pays 70% of your salary up to 182 days. And its pretty usual to have collogues as friends. Would love to see you getting to know about Estonia, we just so small that the more people knows about us the better :D. Anyway, keep up the videos and cheers.

Coffee and cake is very common but definitely not a part of the work culture. Maybe it is in the company he is working but it is not the norm. A lot of relationships start at work but I would not expect that this would happen. If it happens it is wonderful, of course, but if not it is no disappointment because it is just not the reason to work. Perhaps that attitude makes it seem that it does not happen and makes it more difficult for people who are not used to it to find friends at work.

Im from Poland, last year i took 5 weeks vacation in one piece. Yes, I wasn't at work more than one month :)

Paid leave in Germany: By law you have to get at least 4 weeks, and you should take at least 2 weeks of that at a stretch. By court decision companies can set a limit how long you can roll over to the next year (e.g. until 30 September of the following year), but they have to remind you of untaken leave days in time and give you a chance to take them before they pay you out. There is also generally no limit to sick leave days. Social life and work life is often very separated; how much depends however on the company and sometimes the field you work in. There is always some smalltalk at work, especially if you share an office, and it can include some details of your coworker's family life or favorite sport or favorite games - but you'll not automatically be invited to their birthday party or a casual barbecue in the summer. Nearly everyone has their own circle of friends, except maybe young people who moved in a far-away city to work with a startup or so. If you want to make new friends, it is often easier to join a soccer or other sports club - Vereine (associations, clubs) are generally a big thing in Germany and especially in smaller cities or towns the focus of social life, and you can find one for each of your interests 😉

I would recommend the "Freilichtmuseum Detmold", the "Hermanns Denkmal" and the "Extern Steine". ... All three locations are in a range of 30 miles to the city of Detmold. ... Detmold is 2 hours south of Bremen. ... And I guarantee you will have wonderful backgrounds for videos!

with the transfer of vacation days - many companies does not allow you to take leave to the next year - mine for example. you have to take the days in one year. i live in souht of germany but I am a big fan of east germany, it is beautiful and cheaper than the west. Mecklenburg - Vorpommern with the baltic sea its just awesome or you can go to German-Polish Region at Uckermünde, it is so lovely there

Hey there, I am currenlty living in the area of Freiburg and I am pretty sure that you would love the area.

Maybe you find friends only at work because you never find time to do anything else than work... here you find friends whenever you really vibe with somebody. If that's in the office - fine but you won't make friends just randomly at work.

You have to visit Berlin at one point, it's a gem: gritty, urban, vibrant - you'll love it. I can hit you up with tips, since I'm from there :-)

Well, it isn't too surprising that Germany is covered a lot, especially when it comes to comparisons, since it is the second most global migration country after the US. And its coverage has seen a huge increase in the past years not least, because of lots of Americans posting their impressions and thoughts there. Videos covering so-called "culture shocks" or simple comparisons can be found on a daily basis. Also in my humble opinion, there is a not inconsiderable amount of Americans who wanna education their follow countrymen/women about the realities "out there"

To make friends at work is not that uncommon. But it might not look like it from outside. Because at work we work and don’t socialize that much. Talk is about work. But when you join the lunch group at the pizza place next door (and don’t stick to your desk with the sandwich) there you will talk through your night out together and have your laughs. And on average we stay longer in one company. So we may be more careful about making friends because it’s hard to get rid of them if you recognize you don’t like them but now you have to work together for the next 20 years 🥴 If you want to see all the iconic sights in the mountains and the castles and Berlin you won’t avoid the tourists, if you don’t want to risk bad weather. Bremen and other northern places are not that crowded, I guess. And if you are interested in the natives you can watch them better in towns up to 100000 inhabitants in their natural habitat.

I'm from Germany and I have to say that the video you watched is very short and not very accurate. A very good source on this topic are the videos from "The Black Forest Family". A couple from the US now living, working, studying and raising their son in southern Germany.

As a German, I differentiate between work colleagues/acquaintances and friends. Of course, work colleagues can also become friends. Most friendships develop from common interests. Many pursue their hobby in their free time in clubs (there is a club for almost every hobby/interest) or groups separate from work, where friendships develop. If you change your job and you hardly have any contact with your former work colleagues, there is also a saying in Germany "Out of sight out of mind". I translated it with Google, I hope you understand, my English is very rusty.

if y like Mountains go to Bavaria, if y like Beaches at the sea go to St. Peter Ording, if y like big cities with Nightclubs go to Berlin (i am sry for my bad english)

3:00 As you said - go to where the locals go. And do what the locals do. That's the only secret - not only here in my German homeland, but everywhere in Europe. And I guess everywhere in the world. Right?

I think the „not making friends“ part is mostly just in higher paid, office jobs. If you’re working in Warehouse like me for example, you know every guy you’re working with pretty well, we talk about whatever. I don’t know them well enough to actually go out with them after work, but there’s prolly like 2-3 days in the week where we’re just hanging out in our warehouse after work, drinking a beer or fire up the grill :)

You must know, to learn English is mandatory in German schools, so If you Take "Bildungsurlaub", it is to improve your skills.

Hi there Loners, Coffee and cake are not so a big thing in a working environment, rather in a private environment. But it is true that coffee is extremely important in a German company or office. In regards to holidays it is true that not all companies allow you to carry over your holidays, however they can not cancel them they have to force you to take them basically. Your employer is by law not allowed to pay you your holidays instead of giving you your time off, unless the company is. not able to give you the holidays for example if you quit you Job and the in your period of notice there is not enough opportunity to give you all your accumulated holiday days. Also I holiday a year must be 2 weeks in a row.

we have a really good coffee machine at work and almost every day someone brings something along for everyone. sweets, pastry's, cake, cookies, you name it. the first person on site always fills up the coffee maker. thats mandatory. everyone gets first a cup of coffee before anything else. thats just how it is. around 10 o clock, i have the tradition to meet with my team at the coffee maker for another cup and talk a bit about what every is on ones mind. just to check in, talk about the weekend, sometimes also work related stuff or hobbies. of course we know when we can take our time for that. if there is a bunch of work to be done we just skip it, or do just a short break, but having a cup or two with your fellow colleagues is pretty standard throughout germany. its a part of our social culture. i joke always about the question how much coffee in germany would be consumed on a single monday morning... ^^

LOL, you can't have "coffee & cake" over here on your work time. So it is spare time. But if you do have some time to spare, Germany has one of the most relaxed bistro and café house cultures in Europe. Tables on the street, people stiiting for hours, enjoying the day. Yep, Germans. 😄 In the end, to avoid tourist traps in the big cities, ask a local. We'll show you the spots we enjoy. 🙂

Konstanz town very near to my country Switzerland , just on the border

Please see the Video named "this is Germany" before. Greetings from Düsseldorf/Germany ✌🇩🇪

Hey .. greetings from Bremen 🤘🏼

Ok the most touristy spots would be Schloss Neuschwanstein (the concept of the Disney castle) and Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Thats where all americans go. There are different regions. So there is the rhine river basicly all along the western border of germany. Thats where tons of castles are and tons of cities. You want to visit Cologne in carnival season thats when its nuts. In the southwest it is basicly very foresty and beautiful lake constance. All the cities are pretty much nice and quiet - Konstanz and Freiburg are extremely beautiful, right at the border of Swizerland. Konstanz wasnt bombed in WW2 because its so close to Swizerland. There are really old buildings. Stuttgart and Ulm are the bigger cities here. At lake constance basicly every town is so beautiful you never want to leave. Thats a spot you want to visit in the summer. In southeast is the state bavaria at the border to austria, that might be the second most beautiful place after lake constance. The alps. You can already see them from munich the state capital. Munich you want to visit in autumn for the Oktoberfest at the end of September, but its not gonna be quiet ;-). But its beautiful all year round. It doesnt really matter which town you want to visit if you go south from munich since they are all beautiful and the stereotypical bavarian thing you know from movies. Dirndl and Lederhosn and tons of beer and the best pretzels you have ever eaten. You can visit beautiful Salzburg or just hang out at the Andechs monastery which i would recommend for a daytrip. The other major citiy in bavaria is Nürnberg. Smaller cities like Würzburg, Regensburg or Passau are also very old and nice. In the north there is Hamburg which is the second largest city in germany. Its more a sea culture and they eat tons of fish. Its a whole different world compared to munich. Since im from the south i cant recommend stuff there. Hamburg has also the biggest red light district i believe in europe. And there are the famous mudflats at the north sea and at the baltic sea its more chalk cliffs. The Islands are also tourist destinations. Berlin is a whole different story. Its totally different from every other german city. Its a lot of party and drinking there and lots of people run around in like punk rock clothing. Everything goes. Nobody gives a s***. Its very alternative. Frankfurt is the only city with skyscrapers and all the banks and the stock exchange are there. Not much to see for a tourist. Yeah id say the most beautiful stuff is at the west and the south borders and maybe the northern one too.

One thing he didn't mention is that if you're a volunteer for the fire department or the technical relief agency time helping your fellow citizens doesn't count against you in terms of the hours you worked at you main job.

I am from the Czech Republic. I saved up the rest of my vacation for several years until one year I had almost 70 days of paid vacation. But that's not standard. Most employers wouldn't allow it.

Coffee is part of the work culture, coffee and cake not so much any more - but many of my colleagues close their lunch break with a coffee and a cookie. The typical hour for coffee and cake would be around 4 pm, and many people keep that tradition up at least at the weekends. You'll find cosy little cafés in nearly every town, and many bakeries have also a little corner with two or three tables for coffee and cake. Tips where to go in Germany are difficult - there are large differences between the regions, culturally as well as regarding living expenses. Hamburg is rather expensive, nearby Friesland far cheaper, but also very rural. The Harz region in Thuringia with Quedlinburg (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/r59pYJikvLCyoWg.html, kzfaq.info/get/bejne/g7yGl9l9y7CbdX0.html) and Thuringia's capital Erfurt (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gdagf9eB2MulfXk.html) is becoming a bit more touristy, but not so much as some regions in the West or e.g. around Dresden. In videos about Germany you'll often see pictures from Rothenburg ob der Tauber near the border between the states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, but only about 40km south of Rothenburg you'll find Dinkelsbühl (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/r9CoqLidyZOZe5c.html) and another 30 km south Nördlingen (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/g7eTZMacr6rUZpc.html about the city walls and kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j5-KpcuWrLyzXac.html about the meteor crater it was built in). The region around Lake Constance with Konstanz (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eZ-RrJlynbOdmps.html), Lindau (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jLybpNuXndbGpIE.html), Ravensburg (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hduSbNtnq5-veHU.html / kzfaq.info/get/bejne/a6upi9t8y6ndlnU.html), Überlingen (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fbyiZNur06-6Ymg.html, kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ebd6qsaEusiap3U.html) is lovely, but prices are rather high throughout that region (except maybe for bakery stuff and organic apples).

the look of large german cities is "internationalized". the prettiest parts are the numberless cute little towns all over Germany. you want to hunt castles, palaces, keeps and ruins? we have over 30.000 of them. Germany is highly regionalized, have a look at a map of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE), those are basically the sizes of the cultural different germanic tribes - Germany is a United States of german Tribes with a ton of immigration for thousands of years now, basically.

About the "friend at work". I think there are two big differences between the USA and Germany at work. 1. Americans seem to be a lot quicker to proclaim someone a "friend", while Germans would call the same person an "acquaintance" instead. A neighbor you see regularly and whom you invite to a grill party once a month for example might still not count as "friend" to a German. The person in question phones you at 3 am and tells you that they don't have the time to explain, but they need your help urgently. If you immoderately go to help them, that's a friend. If you start to question them why or hang up, it's an acquaintance. 2. Germans separate private life and work a lot more. Even if you have a friend working right next to you, you might not interact much with them during your work hours. Expect to talk about work issue. While you do a ton of stuff together outside of work. Both of those issues put together and it might explain why "You can't make friends with a German at work."

Most Americans who move to Germany go to Munic / Bavaria first or only. If you must / will do the same you have to know that this is not Germany! My hometown Hamburg is a city you should visit and Berlin is tourist spot either.

11:40 Yes, Germany is actually the second most popular migration destination after the USA

What kind of places in Germany would you be interested in? Historical castles? Art museums? Party? WW2? Please let me know. I would be pleased to give you some recommendations.... Grüße aus der Südpfalz!

basque spanish here, northener of the southerner same job since 1998. I have friends at work, just a few They are my business partners but my social life with just perhaps two big exceptions is completely separated from work life, we are very social but we don't do friends at work, but it happens. We also do that at spain so that estereotype of southerner , i can say that it's not real Maybe younger people working from all over spain at madrid and barcelona as it & finance consultants? Maybe...with no family life...maybe yes. but it's not the normal thing between adults we do separate work coleages & life friends.

Where to go in Germany? Hamburg. Yes, it has touristy parts, but those are easy to avoid. It's by far less crowded with tourists than say Munich despite beeing the bigger and imo more beautiful and versatile city and tourism is much less in your face. Hamburg has incredible subculture and nightlife, is super international and cosmopolitain and it is just different and more open than your tipical boring german city. Berlin is also ridiculously interesting, it is so big that it's easy to escape the beaten path and find all kinds of beautiful crazy shit to dive into. Smaller cities worth a visit could be Lüneburg, which has well conserved historic beautiful architecture and is a vivid little town with lots of students that's not too touristy. Schwäbisch-Hall is small and old and nice. Heidelberg is beautiful but crowded with tourists. I prefer Freiburg which is somewhat comparable but just more interesting overall. All those big cities in the Ruhrgebiet-Area are maybe less visually stunning than others, but they provide authentic people, industrial charm and endless cultural variety. A Bundesliga soccer game in Dortmund will blow your mind, this stadium and athmosphere is one of a kind. Cologne has talkative people and the dome, which makes it worth a visit, but is otherwise not very beautiful. Aachen is old an nice and vivid bordering Belgium. Flensburg is a beautiful old harbour city at the danish border with young flair and some of that viking heritage you find in Schleswig-Holstein. Other tipically overlooked cities are Dresden and Leipzig, Bremen, Stralsund, Lübeck, Görlitz, Landshut, Weimar, Eisenach, Bamberg, Wismar, Marburg........ or even smaller towns like Lauenburg or Boizenburg, where I come from. It's beautiful here ;)

Habe a look at Würzburg in Lower Franconia. Lors of students, old or rebuilt architecture, good food, around 140k inhabitants.

Go to the Island of Hiddensee. No cars allowed!

I love her ticks and mannerisms. Not that I fancy her or anything.x

Coffee and cake is a must have on a sunday afternoone, at work not so much, depends on the company. In some company's i've worked we had together breakfast every morning or in one case every thursday around 3-4 pm my boss cave me money and send me to get some drinks or some bottles of Prosecco. The best way to make friends in Germany is to joyn a Club, like a book Club or a Sport Club or any hobby you can imagine.

I'm curious if making friends between coworkers is different between Austria and Germany, because here in Austria the companies i've been to almost everyone had multiple coworker friends, and people spent time together in their freetime

German channel I can warmly recommend : www.youtube.com/@FelifromGermany, for the deep Dive: www.youtube.com/@TheBlackForestFamily (US couple living in germany since 8-10 years)

Well "work-life-balance" is a big deal in Germany, especially after Corona. Paid sick leave works for 6 weeks in a row, after that the health insurance takes over the payment for you for a maximum of 72 weeks. The insurance sick leave is 70% of your salary. It is important, so you won't loose your job and end up on the street.

Europe in general has mandated holidays you are entitled to from day one. France has more holidays and benefits than most of Europe. On the whole European work life balance is far better than US.

congratulation, Bremen has one of the biggest coffee roast facilities since back in the days, its a seaport city

Try to get this one passed in the US ;) Belgium's right to disconnect Belgium passed a law in February 2022 allowing civil servants to switch off work emails, texts and phone calls received out of hours, without fear of reprisals. The legislation protects the country’s 65,000 public-sector employees from exposure to being permanently on-call, although out-of-hours contact is permissible in exceptional circumstances. Plans are being discussed to extend the new laws to employees in the private sector. It is hoped the new rules will help prevent burnout and reinforce the importance of establishing a work-life balance, Belgium’s Public Administration Minister Petra De Sutter told the BBC.

There's an old German saying that goes: "I can't choose my family and my work colleagues. But my friends..." This roughly shows the relationship we have with our colleagues. That doesn't mean you can't make friends with co-workers. This is where close friendships can develop. But don't expect that. You also have to look at certain social aspects. If you were born here, then you often have friends from your childhood with whom you never really break off contact. Even if you haven't spoken to each other for 10 years, it's actually always as if you last saw each other 2 weeks ago. Club life, e.g. in a sports club as a child, can also create such friendships. Of course, if you have moved often, such relationships can hardly develop. And you often only realize how valuable something like this is when you are much older...

08:30 I feel like in France it's reverse :D

Geography now is a really cool channel to check out

Hi, and greets from Hamburg, Germany. There is a very good channel called Second Thought. Their most prolific video is probably the one called "Why nearly everybody treats their workers better than the USA". In it you will find that nearly all countries around the world have at least 10 mandatory PTO vacation days per year. Whereas the USA has none, zero, nada, zilch, niente. Same goes for PAID sick leave. In most EU countries you have unlimited sick leave. When you're sick, you. Are. Sick. Period. How the payment for sick leave is done varies from nation to nation but in most countries you can't be fired (without recompense) simply because you didn't show up when you were sick. The list of what the USA calls benefits, others call rights, is long. The 20 days of PTO vacation days is for PART TIME jobs. A minimum of 24 days for full time jobs. But most companies are offering 30 days. All of those are in addition to 10-15 public holidays, depending on the state of Germany. These vary a bit from year to year because the notion of observed holidays for holidays falling on Sundays hasn't been enshrined in the laws (yet). On top of all that many companies offer either monetary recompense for overtime, or you may add an additional vaccination day for every 8 hours of overtime. Most companies limit the maximum number of vacation days you can get this way up to a total 40 days regular and overtime combined.

- coffee & cake isn't a work culture thing, just an example of how important coffee is. Although our cafeteria sells cake, but that's not on company time. - where to go in Germany... what are you looking for? I second the proposal for Geography Now Germany for a high, high level overview. I can only point out the usual tourist traps: Heidelberg, Rothenburg ob der tauber, Neuschwanstein, Oktoberfest. - Friends... It's not as uncommon to make friends at work as he says. That seems to be an individual experience. - some cultures don't care as much about punctuality, especialyl not on our level of "five minutes early is proper punctuality"

I mean it's not as if it's not allowed to make friends at work. It's just less expected. People really have to click for that. And yes Germany has the most immigration in Europe and among the most in the World as well. It's not surprising. We're the 4th largest economy.

You don't get it, Sunday is work free, if not there's minimum 1 other day t he week with no work recommended if working Sundays. So 52 weeks means 52 days off work. Addition to that you get 25 to 30 days off as paid leave 😂 now you know 😉

We do make friends at work!

By law you get at least 24 days payed leave but almost everybody has 30 days.

Go to the South of Germany !...and maybe to France ...because this beautiful girl looks French...making friends is not easy...you must earn it...working together is not enough...I am from Germany and I would like to see your reactions to videos about some european countries...landscapes...architecture...food...

0:51 Just do more Germany content and we Germans will flock to you xD

imagine not having 30 days of vacation no way glad im european

licence depending on a good relationship with boss is a joke fight for ur rights jesus

I work for a German company ( won't name it, but it's one of the biggest IT companies in Germany ), our office is in Romania, I am also Romanian myself. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to have to keep pushing the german colleagues and bosses to keep moving a project forward. Every time I ask to an implementation of a new programming library ( be it in Node, JS, Java, C#, etc), they have to have 50 meetings and discuss it before finally saying OK. I don't enjoy working at such a slow pace, like the guy in the video said, constant meetings and coffees, blah, blah, blah, moving forward at an iceberg pace.

Is not particularly German. IT’S. European.

If you are more into cities you should visit Berlin, Hamburg, Köln (Cologne) or München (Munic).If you want to see lots of castles, you should visit the world heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley. For Mountains you should visit Bavaria, if you like more scandinavic vibes visit the North Sea coast of Germany. And don't try to see everything in one visit 😉